Page 80 of Caveman Alien's Touch

“You really do,” I admit, kissing her. “But I made sure to lead the power somewhere else, and not into you.”

“Somepower goes into me,” she purrs. “I really like your touch.”

I slide my hand past her cheek, towards her ear. “I like touching you.”

She closes her eyes. “Oooh…”

Her skin is warm and soft and perfectly smooth. I could explore her with my fingers all day and all night. And now I can.

“We’re married,” I say softly, letting my fingertips do what they want. “We’re husband and wife. I can touch you. Forever.”

Bronwen sighs with pleasure. “You better, my Foundling.”

EPILOGUE

- Bronwen-

“So Noker got trapped himself,” Alba muses. “Lured by one of those creepy grubs that sound just like a baby. The same way he tried to trap us. It’s kind of poetic justice, if it hadn’t been so tragic for one of his clansbrothers.”

We’re over at the baking oven, waiting for my last experiment to finish. I’ve only been married for a few days, and I’m still deep inside a pink cloud of bliss.

“He says it himself,” I tell her. “He thinks it’s funny how he got trapped in a pit. But thankfully he got out.”

“How is Dexer? I heard he broke his collarbone.”

“Almost back to normal,” I tell her, wiping off my work surface with a leather rag. “These guys heal fast. Looks like he won’t have any lasting effects. But imagine someone as big as Noker stepping on your shoulder and then jumping straight up as hard as he could. That had to hurt.”

“Better than to stay in that pit. Meanwhile, this smells good.”

She’s right. The oven does give off a delicious scent of baked goods, with a hint of vanilla and roasted nuts. “Don’t get your hopes up. It’s easy to make it smell all right, but much harder to produce something that you can actually eat.”

Alba sniffs the air. “Nice. The smell itself may be reason enough for building this oven. It’s really nice. And they built it in one day?”

I take off my dinosaur-skin apron, one of the wedding gifts from the clan. “The Foundlings are really capable when you let them do the work they want to. I mean, having no legs or being deaf doesn’t mean you can’t do all kinds of important things.”

“Was that holding them back before? Having just three guys doing all the important stuff, and not letting the others leave their platforms?”

“I think it may have,” I shrug. “They were always afraid of attacks. In fairness, a Foundling on the ground is a much easier target than if he’s a hundred feet up on a platform. Now, they’re not as scared.”

“The outcasts are gone, and the Borok tribe will do daily patrols in the area,” Alba says. “And they have all these thorn bushes now. The only danger would be the really big dinos. Or the flying ones.”

I glance up, but there’s no dactyl on the sky. “It’s hard to defend against those, but that’s true for any tribe.”

She gives me a little smile. “Meanwhile, you’re looking happy these days.”

“Iamhappy,” I admit. “I know it’s crazy marrying a caveman alien who’s half dinosaur. But I feel like this was all worth it, because I met him.”

She frowns. “The years in the tunnels were worth it? Really? Just a couple of weeks ago, you were calling them ’sewers’.”

I squat down and open the wooden door to check on the experiment. “That’s how good he is. Looks like we need another couple of minutes here. How about you, Alba? Not into cavemen? Oh, just listen to me. I’m becoming the worst cliche. You know, when married couples are always trying to get their friends hitched, too. Sorry. You stay single as long as you want.”

“Yeah, don’t hold your breath formywedding,” she chuckles. “I don’t think these guys are for me. I like the bookish type, you know? And these guys don’t even have books.”

“They have scrolls,” I tell her. “At least, Melr’ax does.”

“Scrolls with pictures, but not writing. I don’t want a children’s-bookish guy. Anyway, any news about that dragon we should expect?”

“Not as far as I know. I wanted to ask Melr’ax more about that. It sounds like total nonsense to me, but then Noker told me about a golden apparition that harassed them before, and he said maybe there’s a connection? Something like that. Sounds like a fairytale. Okay, ready to try this brick of burned alien fruits?” I squat down and open the door. Using my thick apron as a potholder, I get hold of the ceramic loaf pan and lift it out.

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